Travels to Italy with Kayla & David, Leg 3: Rome

Italy Adventure Leg 3: Rome

We left Florence to travel to Rome on May 7th for the final leg of our Italy adventure.  Again the train ride was only about 2 hours on a high speed train.  

Once we arrived in Rome and got checked into our apartment  and set out to explore and we quickly saw the beauty and oldness of Rome.  What we really enjoyed about visiting 3 different cities in Italy was seeing how different each of them were from each other.  

The next morning we had our Vatican City tour scheduled that we had booked ahead of time.  Getting there ended up being a big challenge... We were staying a little outside of the city center and there were no cabs to be found on the street we were walking on.  Even when we did find a couple going the other direction we waved to them but they never turned around and came back for us.  By the point when we knew we were going to be very late I could practically see the steam coming out of Brian's ears.  This was the one tour that if we missed it said no refunds, etc.  Plus since it was a small guided tour of only 8 people and 3 hours long so there wasn't the chance of just getting on the next one.  We tried to call the phone # we had for the tour to tell someone we were still coming but couldn't get through :(

Finally once we found a cab we had it bring us to the cafe which was supposed to be our meeting point just outside of the Vatican City.  We figured they'd be long gone as we were about a half hour late by this point.  It turned out that there was a lady there still waiting! We apologized for being late and she quickly got on the phone and said a bunch of stuff real quick in Italian to someone on the other end.  Once she got off she told us the tour guide was coming back for us!  We had made it just in the nick of time since the group had just passed through the security check point to enter the Vatican and they hadn't actually started the tour yet.  We were SO lucky and excited that we still were able to tour the smallest country in the world!  Vatican City is only 0.2 square miles and has a population of about 750.

Just after passing through security a few minutes later we were standing in a huge courtyard looking at the side view of the dome on St Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel! 

Our tour guide explained a lot about Michelangelo's life and about his famous painted ceiling that we would see later on in the tour.  Below he is showing us The Last Judgement which is a fresco on the altar wall that Michelangelo completed 25 years after the ceiling.  It is a depiction of the coming of Christ and the eternal judgement of humanity.  

From here the tour lead us through the Vatican Museum.  The museum is basically a large art gallery of various forms that previous Popes collected and have put on display. Below is the ceiling of a long hallway we walked down with intricate work painted, pictures don't do it justice... 

Next we walked through the Gallery of Tapestries where again pictures cannot even capture how incredibly large and detailed these 15th and 17th century tapestries are.  They looked like paintings, it was unbelievable to think how these were made, especially so long ago!

We also saw the sculpture Laocoon & His Sons.  This sculpture was found in Rome in 1506 and has been on display ever since in the Vatican.  It is thought to have been done somewhere in the range of 27BC-68AD.  So impressive to look at something in that condition and to try and wrap your brain around how old it actually is!

Eventually we made our way into the Sistine Chapel and were able to stand and admire the ceiling that Michelangelo spent 4 years painting between 1508-1512.  Of course we couldn't take pictures so we just enjoyed looking at one of the most famous works of art in history.

The next part of the tour, St. Peter's Basilica was also highly impressive since it is the largest church in the world.  (Kind of funny, largest church in the world which is located in the smallest country!) Saint Peter, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus is said to be buried below the altar along with the very first Pope.  By Catholic tradition Saint Peter is also said to have passed the keys to heaven by Jesus, there are various symbols of keys around the Basilica representing this. 

From the outside...

Next we went to find lunch and then searched out a gelato shop that my friend Brielle had told me we had to try to find since it has 150 flavors! We found it after not to long and man was it good!  We said it would be impossible to go there with kids and try to get them to choose a flavor, we had a tough enough time ourselves!  

 

From here we set out to see the famous Trevi Fountain...

Then we went to relax for awhile on the Spanish Steps and enjoy the sun and some great people watching. 

The next day we started out by touring the Colosseum.  Such an amazing structure built around 70-80 AD which could hold an estimated 50,000-80,000 spectators for various gladiator events and other battles.  I couldn't help but think, "if these walls could talk..."some pretty brutal events took place there.

  

Where the round part is at the bottom is actually where the floor of the arena had been.  The passageways were backstage areas and in some cases places where animals were caged before fights. 

Later in the afternoon we walked through the Roman Ruins where you can see where very very old Roman temples had been.  Today most of what is left is in crumbles but you can still tell somewhat how things once looked.  

We ended the last night of our trip with a final dinner of pasta and of course more wine.  It started to set in for Kayla and I that they we were going to have to part ways again in the morning.  Although we were sad we were still enjoying our last night together...

Kayla was looking to have spaghetti and meatballs and the waiter ended up talking us all into ordering it since it sounded so good.  It was actually just one large very tasty meatball!

After dinner we also enjoyed one last gelato cone!

 

The next morning we said our sad goodbyes as Kayla and David got picked up for their flight back home.  Brian and I left later that afternoon.  We really didn't do much, just wandered around a little more, felt empty without travel buddies.  We had such a memorable time with Kayla and David and we are sure there will be many more great trips to come with them!  

Italy truly is a beautiful place...